Page 43 of the Pine Forest - Companies House documents reveals that "Edward Andrew Penney" registered a name change to "Edo Shonin" on March 31, 2006. He signed all prior official Pine Forest Corporate documents as "Edward A. Penney."

The costumery is curious, the robes and hats are available on eBay: here and here. Chinese/Japanese Kesas (custom – any colour you like) can be ordered on eBay here.

It is interesting to note that the eBay store selling the first two items is called Third World TrAid.
The Companies House Pine Forest corporate records reveal that a Director of Third World TrAid, served as a Director of Pine Forest Sangha for ninety some-odd days in 2007.

"Edo Shonin" was born Edward Andrew Penney on June 27, 1957 in Glasgow Scotland.

He is the son of Mr. Edward and Mrs. Helen Penney. Mrs. Penney is still living in Scotland. Edward has two brothers and two sisters, all living. Direct communication with his family reveals that: none of his family were Buddhists – ever. He did not begin a monastic education at 5 years old.
Here is Edward Penney’s Extract of an entry in a Register of Births: (Birth Certificate)

One a multiplicity of Penney's conflicting autobiographical descriptions:

And here: – Tooting his own horn?

They're not quite the same as his current BIO on the Bodhayati School site:

"Ven. Edo Shonin, originally from Scotland, has been a Buddhist monk for approximately 25 years and has been ordained and received transmissions within both mainstream Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist traditions. He is also an accomplished practitioner of the more esoteric Vajrayana teachings. His monastic training has involved an extensive study of Buddhist practice, ministry, philosophy and psychology. He has supervised the training of countless Buddhist practitioners and also maintains a practice of Buddhist based psychotherapy."

A Threatened Libel Suit Brought by Penney and Van Gordonis Settled Out of Court.

Note: The Daily Mail was apparently - through threat of civil litigation by Carter Ruck - forced to apologize for using the terms “cult” and “brainwashed zombie” but apparently not for using the phrase “a dangerous conman with a talent for deception” that also appeared in the article.

Precious Metal has been given seven days to comply with Carter-Ruck’s demands or face “an injunction, damages and legal costs”. However, the blog is based in the USA and the owner has declined to comply; a couple of American court decisions support his position. Wired noted one in 2003:

"This blog is written by Buddhist monks and research psychologists Ven. Edo Shonin and Ven. William Van Gordon and is about the practice and research of meditation. The posts cover psychological, philosophical, Buddhist, and non-Buddhist perspectives. The blog provides a mixture of reflections, information on how to practice meditation effectively, and an overview of current research findings and issues."

"Along with our friend and research colleague Professor Mark Griffiths, we recently published a paper in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry that discussed whether mindfulness meditation has a role to play in the treatment of psychosis.In addition to examining the treatment applications of mindfulness meditation for individuals with psychosis, our paper briefly explored the risk of mindfulness and other forms of meditation actually inducing psychotic episodes. Today’s post explores this subject in more detail and discusses the circumstances in which meditation practice may actually do more harm than good."

"As we mentioned in our post on the ‘Top Ten Mistakes Made by Meditation Practitioners’, there is some clinical evidence to suggest that over-intensive meditation practice can actually induce psychotic episodes – including in people who do not have a history of psychiatric illness."

“Regular readers of our blog will know that we advocate a very down-to-earth approach to Buddhist practice and are not great supporters of any spiritual approach promising quick-win results or mystical experiences. It may therefore come as a surprise that in today's post we provide instructions on a 10-minute Buddhist meditation technique that, if correctly practiced, we guarantee will enable a person to predict certain events in their future with 100% accuracy."

January 21, 2016

Edward Penney is now known as "Dr. Edo Shonin, PhD."

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